Johnson: Restaurateur quietly keeps food moving

John Ghoukassian, who goes by John G., is shown in the bar at Bistango restaurant in Irvine. He arrived from Iran to Los Angeles in 1983 and in 1987 he opened Bistango.JEBB HARRIS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

His given name is John Ghoukassian, but prefers the simple moniker John G., which is a very good thing since Ghoukassian is very hard on my typewriter.

He hates – grimaces, rubs his forehead and rolls his eyes – that you know even that about him.

John G. is a very, very private individual, a particularly odd thing for a man who has been around Orange County for 25 years, feeding untold thousands at his popular Irvine restaurant, Bistango. Never once had he sat down with a newspaperman flashing a notebook and a pen at him.

I asked John G. why. In his typical way, he just smiled, thought for a moment and shrugged his shoulders. I am telling myself he just likes me.

We take a seat at a rear table of his very crowded restaurant, the 76-year-old man and his two children, Marc and Karyn. He has stories. I guess it is time for him to tell them.

He never intended, he says, to come to America, much less to Orange County, from his beloved Tehran, Iran, where he was born, the son of a hotel nightclub and restaurant operator, a business he had told himself early on he wanted no part of.

"It was 1965," he says wistfully, "and I was in Europe. OK, you can say I was something of a college dropout. I went back to help my father, and worked for him for a year."

He liked it. So much so that in 1966, he opened his own restaurant in Tehran. He named it the Chattanooga. When he says this, the table erupts with laughter.

The Chattanooga? In Tehran?

"It wasn't my idea," he says, holding up his hands. "My father liked to bowl in a place in Vienna called the Chattanooga. I never heard the name before, but I liked it. And in order to please Dad ..."

His customers, I say, simply must have had questions.

"I would play the record to explain it," he said. (Pardon me, boy, is that the Chattanooga Choo-Choo?) "And once, we even had the mayor of Chattanooga come visit us in Tehran."

He'd wanted to do something different. In Tehran in those days, there was one, maybe two, Western-style restaurants. The Chattanooga would be a new one.

He would make it a combination of an early morning café and an evening restaurant, hire a disc jockey and put in a newsstand.

John Ghoukassian, who goes by John G., is shown in the bar at Bistango restaurant in Irvine. He arrived from Iran to Los Angeles in 1983 and in 1987 he opened Bistango. JEBB HARRIS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Owner John Ghoukassian, center, is shown with daughter Karyn and son Marc on the patio at Bistango in Irvine. JEBB HARRIS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Owner John Ghoukassian, left, is shown with daughter Karyn and son Marc on the patio at Bistango in Irvine. JEBB HARRIS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Marc, Karyn and John Ghoukassian survey the patio of Bistango restaurant in Irvine. John opened the restaurant in 1987. JEBB HARRIS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
John Ghoukassian, who goes by John G., is shown on the patio of Bistango restaurant in Irvine. He arrived from Iran to Los Angeles in 1983 and in 1987 he opened Bistango. JEBB HARRIS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

1 of

User Agreement

Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial
slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about
tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to
allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to
republish your name and comment in additional Register publications
without any notification or payment.